Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

What Lies Beyond the Veil by Harper L. Woods

58 reviews

stephanieviolet's review

By chapter 5 I was really exhausted by the repetition of: biting inside of her cheek, desperate to feel free, how dirty and worn thin her clothes are, the bruises and pain inflicted upon her by her abusers. Chapter. FIVE. It was intense. I felt like by then the plot should be moving forward but it just keep repeating the SAME PHRASES and SAME CIRCUMSTANCES to make you feel pity for the MC. By chapter five I wanted her to die to just end the novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Rape, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Torture, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Violence, Emotional abuse, Blood, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Slavery, and Sexual assault

liline163's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

Basically, the stupid fmc ends up with a toxic mmc.

A few things I didn’t like about the book were: (1)It was very obvious that Caelum was a Fae and Estrella’s mate when he was first introduced to the readers, (2) I hate how Caelum kept calling Estrella “Little One” and kept mentioning how much he wanted to have sex with her, (3) the plot twist was very obvious, and (4) I wish Melian wasn’t killed she had so much potential; given that she actually used her brain unlike Estrella.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, and Death of parent

chrisljm's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Another book that belongs in the 'reasons why you can't trust strangers' category. Knew I wouldn't enjoy it right from the start and I contemplated DNFing it, but it's not really in my nature to DNF things. I honestly should've though because what if I died tomorrow and this was the last thing I read... 

I found the writing and sentence structure to be juvenile, clunky and awkward, but besides that I really can't give any criticism on any other parts of the story (plot, characters, chemistry) because I didn't care. The writing itself was too distracting for me and I believe this book would've benefited from at least another round of edits/editors. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Sexual content, Murder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

Moderate: Xenophobia, War, Suicide attempt, Classism, and Pregnancy

Minor: Self harm

gingerwife's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

An entertaining read, but everyone is problematic and the love interest is a giant red flag. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Misogyny, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Cursing, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual harassment

l4urenf13's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Sexual content

tired_cicada's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Lost half a star for the use of the nickname

Little one

for the love interest. Such an ick particularly when

he literally had another nickname for her!!! “My star”? Amazing! Just use that instead of infantilizing her

The plot has potential, I’ll try out book two and see if there is any pay off. The plot twist in this was laughably obvious. Like it was actually painful y’all. 

Lots of shock value deaths that did nothing to the plot. “Oh no my brother died HORRIBLY let me be upset about that for six seconds and then move on to how good this rando I met in a barn looks naked” like, girl!

Furthermore why is EVERYONE so weird and possessive? about the fmc’s body, her knowledge, everything. Everybody wants to keep this girl in a cage!

The mmc (I listened to this book so I don’t know how to spell their names, deal with it) goes on and on about how he gave her choice like that is such a gracious thing to do…. We’ll forget that the entire time they were traveling he was all “I’ll wait until you’re begging for it, but it’s totally inevitable that you’ll come to me. And also I won’t let you be with anyone else if you don’t pick me” yeah, total freedom there pal thanks

Was this great? Nah. Was it entertaining enough? Yeah. 

Had nice line writing, and had the possibility for some fun world building if it goes that direction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts

abkinlaw's review

The first quarter of the book was supposed to build the world but spent too much time in the MFC’s head anticipating her abuse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment

merindahk's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

i think this really needs to be heavily edited. The conversational flow was all off.

I hated the way they threw the two main characters together and they fell in love within a week or two? cmon

i appreciated the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book but I don’t think they did enough. the sex scenes were so uncomfortable towards the end and just so violent. They really needed to do more character development. Why are women always so helpless and small. Also “little one”??? THATS WEIRD and unnecessary

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

milliethekitt's review

dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Incest, and Physical abuse

dovahkiin_freyja's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Cursing, and Sexual violence

Minor: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse